The present invention relates to a rowing apparatus having an oar and oarlock arrangement of improved efficiency.
In my above referred to co-pending application Ser. No. 252,651, there is disclosed and claimed an improved rowing apparatus which can accommodate either a forwards or rearwards facing oarsman and which employs an L shaped oarloom supported at or close to its elbow by a special oarlock and a hydrofoil blade mounted to the outer end of the oarloom. This arrangement results in a predominantly lateral motion to the blade allowing it to produce thrust during the laminar flow regime through the water where the angle of attack of the blade to the water is less than about 16 degrees. An obJection to this arrangement is that in the forwards facing mode during the more forwards moving portion of the finish of the sweep arc as dictated by the L shaped oar, the hydrofoil blade produces thrust which has a highly lateral vector component and therefore produces an inefficient thrust for propulsion of the boat in the forwards direction.